Denard Span looked as impressive in left field Monday night as he did last year in right field. Not bad, considering he came up as a center fielder and had never handled left field in the majors before this season opener.

On my scorecard, I circled two of Span’s catches, as he gracefully went back to grab Yuniesky Betancourt’s deep drive in the sixth inning and made a fine running catch on Adrian Beltre’s ball in the ninth. Added up, Span made six plays and all of them looked good.

“He looks like that everywhere you put him,” Manager Ron Gardenhire said. “He can run the ball down. He’s still going to tell you he’s learning angles out there, and all that stuff, but he can just cover ground.”

Gardenhire also said Span made the right play to catch Jose Lopez’s fly ball in foul territory in the second inning, even though Adrian Beltre tagged up and scored from third base. Early in the game, you take the out, Gardenhire explained.

Span, who batted just .190 this spring, had a productive offensive night too, especially for a leadoff hitter, as he went 0-for-1 with two walks and a sacrifice bunt. Actually, the Twins were frustrated that he bunted with no outs in the third inning, pushing Nick Punto to second base.

“By that time they already had the lead,” Span said. “We needed to score runs and not bunt.”

The walks were nice, but the Twins actually scolded Span for not being more aggressive on the bases in the first inning, as he went station-to-station and got stranded on third after a leadoff walk.

He could have tried to steal second in the first inning against against Mariners starter Felix Hernandez and catcher Kenji Johjima. According to John Dewan’s “Fielding Bible — Volume II,” 83 percent of the runners who tried stealing second against Hernandez last year were successful.

Then, when Alexi Casilla hit a soft single to right field, it seemed like Span could have reached third had he read the ball better, especially since Ken Griffey Jr., was lumbering after it in right field.

So there are some things Span can keep working on, but overall, this was a good start to 2009. If he keeps this up, it’s going to be tough for Gardenhire to keep him out of the lineup.

Note: Head to La Velle’s blog this afternoon for tonight’s starting lineups.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 7th, 2009 at 9:38 am and is filed under Twins thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.